You may have read my earlier post about my dream to complete the 2014 Etape du Tour. My journey to the event is now well and truly underway. My entry is in and has been accepted. Logistics for flights and transport are well and truly underway. My excitement is building and it is still over 9 months away!

I spoke in an earlier post about checking your reality and making sure you were truthful and honest about your current reality in order to enable you to reach your goals. This is never more true than in sports training. In order for me to complete the Etape du Tour I have to be brutally honest with myself regarding my current fitness and the amount of time I have available to train and prepare myself physically for the challenge ahead.

So whilst I am a regular and keen cyclist in order to train as effectively as I can I have to establish a baseline of my current fitness levels so I can work out the most effective training load to put on my body to achieve the greatest gains in the time I have available.

So this week I undertook something called a Threshold Test which helps athletes establish their effective training zones. The exercise lasts for 30 minutes and has a warm up at the beginning and a cool down at the end. But for those middle 30 minutes I was working as hard as I was able to consistently maintain for that period. It was brutal on the legs and lungs and by the end of it I was completely spent.

Sure it was a painful exercise, as examining your current reality can be but I now have the information I need about my body to help me achieve my goal and my dream, the 2014 Etape du Tour.